Stefan Mileschin

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is telling the world+dog that Apple ruined the Siri voice activated search software.

Talking to the Times Union, Woz spoke about Siri while he was attending a farm dedicated to saving malnourished and neglected horses.

Something about the atmosphere of tortured animals must have reminded Woz about the poor fate of Siri, which he thought was great before Apple got its paws on it.

Woz was using Siri to make reservations before the company was sold to Apple. He said that a lot of people say Siri, but he said "poo-poo" and the software was much better before it was acquired by Apple.

In the good old days he could ask: 'Siri, what are the five largest lakes in California?' and it would come up.

Woz could ask 'What are the prime numbers greater than 87?' and they would come up all in a row.

After Apple bought Siri the software became a big thumbs down, Woz said. Now if he asks what are the largest lakes in California, he gets adverts for lakefront properties.

If Woz asks "What are the prime numbers greater than 87", he gets prime rib.

In other words, Apple screwed the application up by trying to make it a vehicle for advertising rather than knowledge.

"I'm really disappointed, but it's still a market for the future," Wozniak said.

In other words, if some bright spark takes the idea and makes it useful rather than just stuffing it up.

As usual, Woz is optimistic that voice recognition will get better, unless that outfit which used to be run by the other Steve does it and keeps ruining it.

http://news.techeye.net/software/woz...le-ruined-siri